10 WWE WrestleMania Matches That Failed To Live Up To The Hype

2. Bret Hart Vs. Vince McMahon - WrestleMania XXVI

Bret Hart Vince McMahon
WWE.com

It should have been the grudge match to end all grudge matches. The most evil man in professional wrestling was finally going to get his comeuppance as he came face to face with the man he most famously screwed, in that most public of manners. Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon at WrestleMania XXVI was one of those matches that fans never expected to happen, but pro wrestling does ‘never say never’ better than most.

If you’d offered fans 11 minutes of Vince McMahon having the ever-loving tar beaten out of him, you’d have received few complaints. Watching Vince get beaten up is one of wrestling’s great pleasures, after all. Watching The Excellence of Execution finally get revenge after nearly 13 years should have been extra sweet. An entire generation of fans had been waiting for this, desperate for this day to come, but it ended up being a huge disappointment.

Squash matches are fun, but 11 minutes of chair shots to the back does not make for a particularly entertaining bout. The live crowd enjoyed it but nowhere near as much as they should have, and time has not been kind to this match. Bret Hart destroying Vince McMahon should have been one of wrestling’s great redemption moments, but it almost ended with sympathy for the devil. Imagine that?

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Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.